As finish line looms, aging boomers pick up the pace

Greg Duffner, of Frankfort, and five friends leave Friday on a 3,800-mile cross-country bicycle trek from San Francisco to Washington, D.C., to fulfill a dream on his bucket list. (Zbigniew Bzdak, Chicago Tribune)

On Friday, Greg Duffner will put his dental practice on hold for several weeks while he cycles coast to coast with a group of five buddies, all in their 50s.

Sitting on a bike seat for 3,800 leg-burning, lung-busting miles, from San Francisco to Washington, D.C., might not be everyone's idea of a good time, but it's been a dream the Frankfort resident has nurtured since his post-college days, when he met some guys who were riding cross-country and it struck a nerve.

"It's always been on my bucket list," said Duffner, 53, who is using his passion for cycling to raise funds and awareness for homelessness. "I hope to be cycling until I'm 80, but I realize that it might not happen. So, if we are ever going to do something like this, we should do it now."

For all the stereotyping of Americans as couch potatoes, many harbor some secret desire to take on a herculean physical challenge, whether that's running a river or hiking the Himalayas.

The trigger might be a big birthday, a friend who had a troubling biopsy or just a glance in the mirror that reveals a person staring back who looks suspiciously like dad. No matter how much you touch up the gray or suck in the gut, there's no denying one simple fact: There's more sand in the bottom of the hourglass than the top.

"All of us have this idea we're going to live forever ... but as we age, reality sets in," said Jason Washburn, a clinical psychologist at Alexian Brothers Behavior Health Hospital in Hoffman Estates. "For a group of highly motivated individuals, engaging in some extreme physical acts is one way to fight it."

That is especially true of baby boomers, whose approach to aging is vastly different from that of their parents, who often dreamed of nothing more strenuous than shuffleboard at the retirement community.

"Baby boomers today are certainly more active than previous generations," says Gabrielle Redford, editorial projects manager for AARP The Magazine. "Many of them came of age right when aerobics and recreational running were becoming popular, in the 1960s and '70s, and they've been active ever since."

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 45 percent of adults age 45-64 participated in at least 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise each week in 2011.

Yoka Ward, of Homewood, knows exactly what she's going to do next year for her 60th birthday: wadlopen, or mud-flat walking, popular in her native Netherlands. Mud-flat hikers, with the aid of a guide, venture into the Wadden Sea when the tide has receded.

The five-hour trek can be extremely strenuous and dangerous, especially if tidal conditions abruptly change, but she's totally committed, She's starting a walking regimen this summer, with an eye to 2014, when she will retire as a school library assistant.

"I just keep thinking ... what if I die and I've never done it?" Ward said. "At this age, we all know that there's an end in sight ... and it will be here a lot quicker than we think."

John Hennelly, of Evanston, isn't limiting his endeavor to a single day. When he turned 50 in January, the milestone birthday kicked off his self-proclaimed "Year of Amazing Feats."

"I just wanted to take some risks and see what my body was capable of," said the political consultant.

So far, he's swam in an icy Lake Michigan, completed a 50-mile run in Indiana and later this month will bike solo around Lake Michigan.

"Right before I die, I don't want to say, 'I watched a lot of great HBO shows,'" he explained. "I want to be able to say I did some really cool stuff on the planet and had a lot of fun doing it."

For Duffner, the longing has been steadily building since 1985, when he and his sister cycled from Florida to Chicago after he finished his dental training. But life intervened, and he spent years busy with all the day-to-day obligations of life, professionally and personally.

But now, with his career established and with his three children on the cusp of adulthood, it's easier to fulfill his passion. He logs more than 6,600 miles a year on his bike, which includes commuting 28 miles a day to his Homewood office, and he routinely rides to places like Wrigley Field and Starved Rock State Park.

Still, he has never tackled something on the scale of a ride across the continent, which calls for six to eight hours a day in the saddle. "My wife thinks I'm nuts, but she said 'go for it,''' said Duffner, who will celebrate his 54th birthday just as his team hits the Rockies.

The other riders — Jim Andricopulos, Mark Bucherl, Emil McCauley, Bill Goldsmith and Keith Melbourne — also wrestled with the huge time commitment. But when they hit on the idea of tying the odyssey to charity, it felt less like a self-indulgence and more like a higher calling.